Prosecutor Preet Bharara Is The New Wall Street Nightmare

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The new sheriff in town sent chills down the spine of Wall Street this week by announcing the insider trading charges — and the use of wire taps to gather evidence — against Raj Rajaratnam and others.

U.S attorney for the Southern District of New York and Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, Preet Bharara has only been on the job 10 weeks, but he’s already making noise.

He is in charge of prosecuting the Rajaratnam case and two weeks into the job he brought charges against millionaire and prominent Democratic fund-raiser Hassan Namazee, the Wall Street Journal points out today.

Bharara gave a lofty speech at his swearing in ceremony, saying he must have, “the willingness to resign over principle; the courage to resist even overwhelming public pressure to do the wrong or incorrect thing; the independence to banish politics from all deliberation and decision-making…”

At least one local defence attorney thinks that will translate into aggressive pursuit of wrongdoings on Wall Street. Ravi Batra told the WSJ, “What former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani did to the mob is what Preet Bharara will do to Wall Street.”

Those who live and die by Wall Street have become increasingly concerned this week that they are being watched; Bharara has likely become the new face of their nightmares.